I hope MS buys Free Radical, the Time Splitters IP would be a welcome edition to the 360's FPS library. IMO of course. And I realize past Time Splitter games have been on PS consoles, but getting this IP will make those long time fans buy a 360.

I know many will disagree me for this, but frankly Sony doesn't have the money to buy Free Radical out, they already have to use PS2 profits to offset the losses from the PS3, and the company as a whole just layed off 8000 workers? MS closed down Ensemble Studios due to unknown reasons but it has shown that it will shower companies with money to get what it wants. Of the game companies, I see maybe Epic, MS, Take-Two, or possibly Sony or EA buying out Free Radical. Sony would be the obvious but I don't see it happening imo of course.

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., the world’s second- largest consumer electronics maker, rose to the highest in more than two weeks in Tokyo trading after a research report said Sony reduced the cost of making its PlayStation3 video-game console by 35 percent.

Sony gained 1.2 percent to close at 1,922 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the highest level since Dec. 15. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 1.3 percent. Shares traded for half a day today on markets in Japan.

Falling costs bring Tokyo-based Sony closer to breaking even on producing a PlayStation 3 that sells for $399 in stores, said Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst of iSuppli’s teardown division that examined the console.

Your right completely, but this still doesn't change the fact that the PS3 is still losing money on every console sold. Combined with the fact that since launch this has been an ongoing deficit. I'm not saying the PS3 is doomed, failing or all that, in fact its doing good in terms of games. but Sony still needs to get its house in order and clean out the garbage before it can buy out Free Radical. Look, they're already paying for Guerilla, Insomniac, Naughty Dog and several other first party studios and have a deficit for each console sold. Do you really beleive Sony is going to ship money out for Free Radical when it already has enough money problems?